Wars Of Attrition Never Bring Victory
by user Jaxhawk It seems to this blogger that President Bush and his Military Commander in Iraq, General Petraeus are trying to fight a clean surgical war in Iraq. Even though the Terrorist Islamists are willing to behead those they captured, use Chlorine gas and embedded bombs to kill indiscriminately, we are trying to win using the weakest part of our military arsenal. There are no flame throwers, no tank brigades, no carpet bombings and no mass artillery bombardments on cities that are known hideouts for terrorists. We are trying to go from house to house rooting out terrorists like we had to do in the caves of Iwo Jima, Tarawa and Okinawa -- where we lost 15,439 troops. The difference is these valiant men and women in Iraq are doing their jobs with only Humvees, armed personal carriers, rifles and machine guns. The results are seen on TV and in the Main Stream Press daily. More troops killed every week if not daily, and no end in sight. To make it worse when the troops get into a fire fight with the enemy, and who can tell who the enemy is when women and children as well as men, are involved in the fighting quite often. If they kill civilians the troops involved are too often subject to court martial. One such ridiculous event is going on at this very moment involving the investigating team of JAG lawyers who are Marines. These lawyers were ordered to investigate the killing of 24 civilians during a firefight in Haditha during November 2005. Apparently this Article 32 hearing, that is the military equivalent of a grand jury, was prompted by Major General Bargewell, when he heard from the "chain of Command":"Iraqi civilian lives are not as important as United States troops lives, and casualties of civilians is just the result of doing business." I would hope the Commander of our forces values the lives of our troops more than he does the Iraqis. If he doesn't. He should go back to West Point and study a little history. During WWII the cities of Hamburg and Dresden were fire bombed day and night using explosives bombs first to take of the roof tops of dwellings and then incendiaries to start fire storms that reached 1500 degrees and killed according to the ''Columbia Encyclopedia between 35,000 and 135,000 civilians in one night in Hamburg! In March of 1944 we bombed Dresden over 3 days with 7,831 tons of explosive and incendiary bombs to aid the Russian advance on Berlin, and killed over 35,000 civilians! I am not saying this was a "war crime" or that we should firebomb Iraq. What I am saying is that it is past time when we let "political correctness' and the "mommy attitude" guide our effort to win the war in Iraq. It is time to quit fighting the terrorists war, and fight our way to Victory. We can identify cities and town in parts of Iraq where the most terrorist attacks are being perpetrated. Then bomb these places to smithereens! No more house to house rooting out! Give the Marines back their flame throwers, and use them whenever an enemy if located. Wars do have casualties. People get killed and it is too bad if civilians get in the way, but it is better than the continuous parade of body bags coming home. But I digress!! The Article 32 hearing for Captain Randy Stone is a disgrace to the Marine corps, and reeks of Political Correctness. This has no place in the Marine corps., and it tarnishes a glorious heritage for it to even begin. Capt. Stone is the first of four Marine officers to be charged with dereliction of duty for failing to investigate "properly" 24 civilian deaths in Haditha in November 2005. Having reviewed the facts — what you might call his politically correct job as battalion lawyer — Capt. Stone determined no further investigation was warranted. In other words, he came to a politically incorrect conclusion. (So did his superiors, but he's the guy on trial — another story.) Capt. Stone could get three years in prison. Three enlisted Marines are charged with unpremeditated murder. They could get life. At least eight other Marines may have been granted immunity to testify. The whole case exudes the terrible, rotting stench of eating our own. Described in the heavy-breathing press as "the biggest U.S. criminal case involving civilian deaths in the Iraq war," the incident sounds less like a war crime than, well, a war. "Here's what happened: A convoy of Marines trolling insurgent-riddled Haditha was hit by a huge IED. A Humvee was destroyed. One Marine was killed (split in two). Two other Marines were wounded (one grievously). There was a lot of shooting at an approaching Iraqi car. There was a lot of shooting at two nearby Iraqi houses where Marines heard, as The New York Times put it, "the distinct metallic sound of an AK-47 being prepared to fire." As one Marine witness explained, "the squad leader thought he was about to kick in the door and walk into a machine gun." In the end, no additional Marines had died, but 24 Iraqi civilians, including some children, had been killed." The preceding is an excerpt from "Diana Wests' Blog". We should support our troops as we did in WWII even if civilian casualties occur, as long as they are not lined up against a wall and shot. Stop the political correctness. This is war not a playground game where nobody gets hurt! __NOEDITSECTION__ Category: Opinions Category: Opinions by User Jaxhawk Category: May 15, 2007 Category: FIGHT THE WAR TO WIN! Opinions From The Opinion Wiki, a Wikia wiki. From The Opinion Wiki, a Wikia wiki.